Currently, absorbent articles are packaged in a wide variety of packages that employ numerous confusing methods to indicate different absorbent capacities to the consumer. While the manufacturers of such products have been adept at providing an adequate selection of absorbent products having different levels of absorbency, they have had less success in educating the consumer as to which product is appropriate for their needs. In particular, degrees of incontinence and void volumes for individuals vary from light infrequent episodes to chronic heavy amounts. Currently, consumers are left to a “trial and error” approach to selecting an appropriate absorbent article. They must buy a product having a particular absorbency level, try the product to determine if either leakage occurs or under utilized capacity is present, and then reselect another absorbency level having either a higher or lower absorbency depending on the previous results until the appropriate product for their needs is found. Such a process can be time consuming at best, or worse, it can alienate the consumer from ever using that brand of absorbent article again if the failure on the first attempt was catastrophic.
Therefore, what is needed is a method of determining a person's degree of incontinence and recommending an absorbent article having an appropriate absorbent capacity for their needs. In addition, what is needed is a void volume indicator that indicates an appropriate absorbency level for a person's degree of incontinence.